This invention relates generally to mobile processor-based systems that include speech recognition capabilities. Mobile processor-based systems include devices such as handheld devices, pocket personal computers, personal digital assistants, digital cameras, laptop computers, data input devices, data collection devices, remote control units, voice recorders, and cellular telephones, to mention a few examples. Many of these devices may include speech recognition capabilities. With speech recognition, words uttered by a user may be converted to text, enabling automated transcription of speech. Spoken words may also be received as commands that enable selection and operation of the processor-based system's capabilities. In other instances, a system may provide automatic speaker identification capabilities where a speaker may be identified by comparison of his or her speech with a set of predefined models of known speakers. In a number of cases, the ability of a given device to recognize speech or identify a speaker is relatively limited. A variety of ambient conditions may adversely affect the quality of the speech recognition or speaker identification. Because the ambient conditions may change unpredictably, the elimination of ambient effects is much more difficult with mobile speech recognition platforms than with platforms where the ambient conditions are predetermined or static.